And finally... (July 14, 2007)
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This is the first of what I hope will be weekly articles.
What I shall do is point out event(s) in the sporting world that sneaks under the radar, but deserves recognition. Perhaps a win in a minority sport, or something along those lines. I'll post it on a Saturday, to mimic the "And finally..." you see on a news broadcast - i.e. the end of the week - something positive to end the week on.
Here is the first of them... It was technically the week before, but for the sake of this week, it doesn't matter!
The America's Cup is probably the oldest sporting trophy in the world. It is the most famous sailing competition in the world, pitting usually a dozen or so teams together from all over the world.
It started in Britain, around the Isle of Wight, as a race between the England and the United States. Naturally, the States won, leading it to be called "America's Cup". They won the trophy every time it was contested until 1983.
The champions in 2003 were Alinghi, a team from Switzerland. It was the first land-locked country to win the title, so had no choice to waive the right to host the event. It was instead held in Valencia, in Spain.
There were 11 challengers to Alinghi's crown, and as the format decrees, the 11 challengers playoff for the right to face Alinghi in the America's Cup - a stage called the Louis Vuitton Cup. Amongst the challengers were a Team New Zealand, the favourites, who lost the Cup to Alinghi four years previously. BMW Oracle Racing rode with the United States flag - the States sole entrant. Italy had three representatives, and countries such as South Africa, Sweden, Spain, France and China were in the field.
The tournament is a double round robin, decreeing that each team play 20 matches in total. They were spread out from April 16 to June 6.
New Zealand struggled early on, but won all 10 matches in the second Round Robin to sneak into first in the group, ahead of the United States and Italy - just 3 points (a win is 2 and there are bonus points available) seperating all three. The Spanish entry came fourth, 9 points behind New Zealand. All four advanced to the Semi Finals.
As winners of the Round Robin, the Kiwis got the right to choose their Semi Final opponent. They chose the Spanish team that barely made it through to the Knockout Stages. They then held a 9 race series, with the winner to advance to the Final. New Zealand won 5-2 to advance. The United States played the Italian boat. The States never recovered from losing the first race by over 2 minutes, and lost the series 5-1.
The Final of the Louis Vuitton Cup saw New Zealand v Italy. The Italians were completely outclassed, and lost 5-0. New Zealand advanced to take on the Swiss.
